2010-07-09
Good Morning God’s Treasures,
I use that greeting, because this entire new series of messages will reflect the love that God has for His human creation. We may never know if God has been stretching toward some kind of ultra-maturity or is just making adjustments needed to cure the human condition of sinfulness, or both, but He is certainly taking action to help us. But, throughout the sweep of human history, we have seen Him do the ultimate possible to bring humans back to Him by working hard “to renew us in His own image, so that we might have a greater knowledge of Him” [COL 3: 10]. This is only one part of the sanctification process- that effort on God’s part to perfect us sufficiently to allow for our glorification- our readiness to return to Him for a blissful eternity in heaven. As anyone who has been reading my devotions knows, both the Son and the Father have mission statements in which our redemption and eventual purification [being brought to sufficient perfection] figure prominently in preparing us for our return to God [see JN 6: 39-40; EPH 1: 4-5]. In this new series, we will be looking together at covenants. The Holy Spirit is in charge, so hold on for a very interesting ride!
A covenant is a two-way promise, “I’ll do this, if you will do that.” Entering into a covenant with another makes us covenant partners. Any covenant with God has one big difference-the covenant partners aren’t equals. God is the dominant partner and unlike any human, He can be expected to keep His end of the covenant all the time. However, our God is not only our Covenant Partner, He is One Whose sole ambition is to love us, for there is no evil in Him. Whether it’s a man to man covenant, e.g. that between two friends like David and Jonathan [1 SAM 18: 1-5] or a man to God one, the making of such a promise is very serious matter and must not be done unless both parties to it intend to make it permanent and intend to keep the promises made in it. It’s always best to pray first, think, and then enter into the covenant. Despite the fact that David’s covenant with Jonathan was a man to man one, it also involved God. So in accordance with Christ’s teaching on the making of vows [MT 5: 33] never break a promise made and don’t make a promise until we have really thought it through, prayerfully asking God about the wisdom of doing so.
Throughout mankind’s history, there have been three segments of time for us to consider. 1) The time of no covenant-from the creation of mankind through the giving of the Covenant of the Law [celebrated as Shavuot annually by traditional Jews –EX 24: 1-11]. Mankind had no way to know what was acceptable to God and what wasn’t. 2) The Covenant of the Law until Christ established the new Covenant of Grace with the shedding of His blood on the cross [1 COR 11: 25]. During this period, we had a way to know what was acceptable and not acceptable by God, but no access to salvation from sin [JN 14: 6]. And 3) The time after the Covenant of Grace was instituted. I’m sure the Holy Spirit will lead me to write much more about these two covenants and more in this series of messages, so I’ll leave that for His perfect time. Mankind’s reaction to these times had to have had a large place in God’s decisions for when to bring down certain teachings. That’s why a statement like DT 29: 29 is wholly appropriate for it’s time. “There are some things that the Lord our God has kept secret; but He has revealed his Law, and we and our descendants are to obey it forever.” Still true today and always. The Law here refers to the 10 commandments [EX 20: 1-17]. Today most of those secrets have been revealed, for unlike the Gnostic way of thinking, God never intended to set up a secret society of the chosen few. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, for example, is for everyone to hear. JN 15: 15-16a, “I do not call you servants any longer, because a servant does not know what His Master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from My Father. You did not choose Me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures…”
One other aspect of this new series of messages will be more conversation about how these truths impact us in our own lives. For this is not to be just an intellectual exercise, but a discussion of the practical matters of how what we learn together apply to us. In my own life, because I was born and raised for the first 25 years of my life under the Covenant of the Law, and then, was brought by the Holy Spirit into the Covenant of Grace, has allowed me to experience the difference. So, I have something I can share about the differences between those two periods in my life. I will tell you that even people born into observant Christian families must undergo a personal conversion to faith in Christ, whether it be through some kind of traumatic or marked event or so gradual that it’s barely perceptible. It will be exciting to delve into these matters and to see just how crucial to our lives covenants really are. David’s covenant with Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a tremendous effect not only on their individual lives, but on the lives of everyone in both families. Because of David’s key position in the royal line of David, it also affects us today. We must remember that God has given us two purposes, our immediate one [which we know about] and that cosmic one [which we don’t know about and which can transcend a human’s physical life into the generations to come]. Well, more on all that as the Holy Spirit takes us on this journey into better understanding of covenants.
PRAYER: The words “commitment” and “covenant” often frighten people who don’t understand them. A carefully and prayerfully made covenant can bring enormous blessings. Making a commitment, the marriage covenant, for example, opens us to a different way of life- one which can be so much better if made carefully and prayerfully. It can be so much better than a life without any commitments in it. And yet, Dearest Father, so many people avoid commitments and covenants like the plague. You and You alone have the wisdom, compassion, strength, and power to guide us into commitments and covenants that will eventually lead us to return to You for a blissful eternal life. We thank and praise You for making such things possible for us. Most especially, we offer you thanks, praise, and glory for sacrificing the physical life of Your Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross, so that salvation, peace, eternal forgiveness, and justification are available to us through our faith in Him [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25; RO 4: 3; HE 8: 12]. We open our hearts to Your teaching through the Holy Spirit and ask that He should always be directing my writing and my readers’ responses to it. Protect us all from the adversary’s efforts to bring in doubts, to try to steal our minds and hearts with his lies, and to lead us away from producing the fruits of the Spirit [GA 5 22-23]. You always keep Your end of the Covenant of Grace, and we ask for Your help in keeping our own ends of it. We know You love us, and beseech You to show of more about how that love manifests itself in our lives. Let us have a better understanding of the blessings of our covenant with You, and motivate us to make the adjustments necessary in our lives to be better covenant partners with You. We ask these things in the holy and mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Next Week: We’ll learn about different kinds of covenants, and I’ll share some of the differences between living under the Law and Grace that I note in my own life. I know the Holy Spirit has a lot to share with us over the next few months and am excited to get going with it. If there is one single momentous truth that undergirds everything we experience, it is God’s love for us. Just thinking about JN 15: 16, “You did not choose Me; I chose you …” gives me such joy in my heart when I think of it. How about you? The Bible is replete with evidences of God’s love for all His human creation, and we get to see it open up like a new flower ready to open it’s colorful petals and reveal its beauty to us. God’s availability and His promise never to abandon those who love Him [PS 9: 10] are so very important to us. They are evidence that He will keep His end of the Covenant of Grace. These notions should give us great trust and comfort in Him. IS 55: 1, 3, is proof that God chose us first. “The Lord says, ‘Come, everyone who is thirsty-here is water! Come, you that have no money –buy grain and eat! Come buy wine and mils-it will cost you nothing!...Listen now, My people, and come to Me; come to Me, and you will have life! I will make a lasting covenant with you and give you the blessings I have promised to David.” PS 81: 10, “I am the Lord your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Open your moth, and I will feed you.” And you bet He will! He feeds us physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. There have never been a more blessed people than we, who are saved and given peace through the Covenant God has made with us through Jesus Christ. Praise, honor, glory, and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24:15